06/13/2021 News & Commentary – National Security
News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Daniel Riggs
1. House tees up war authorization repeal while Senate waits on White House
2. Opinion | Don’t cede the Asia-Pacific to China. The U.S. must learn from its TPP mistake.
3. Rare earth metals at the heart of China’s rivalry with US, Europe
4. G7 set to agree ‘green belt and road’ plan to tackle China’s influence
5. U.S. contractor to pay $5.28 million to Abu Ghraib prisoners
6. ‘Be ready’: Australia warned about China’s ‘grey zone’ war
7. FACT SHEET: President Biden and G7 Leaders Launch Build Back Better World (B3W) Partnership
8. ‘Build Back Better World’: G7 leaders back developing world spending plan to rival China
9. UN rights commissioner warns of escalating violence in Myanmar
10. FBI Using NSA to Conduct Unconstitutional ‘Warrantless’ Searches for ‘Extremists’
11. China cautions G7: ‘small’ groups don’t rule the world
12. 2021 G7 Leaders’ communiqué: Our shared agenda for global action to build back better
13. ‘Xi Jinping is my spiritual leader’: China’s education drive in Tibet
14. The US military is tearing itself apart over ‘wokeness’ and it’s only helping America’s enemies
15. Biden’s Blue Dot seeks to derail China’s Belt and Road
16. My Mother Eleni: The Search for her Executioners (published in 1983 about the Greek Civil War)
1. House tees up war authorization repeal while Senate waits on White House
Defense News · by Joe Gould · June 13, 2021
This could be a very interesting debate. How this turns out may very well indicate the direction of US foreign policy and national security for years to come.
Excerpt: “A National Security Council spokesman confirmed the White House is working with Kaine and others, and that Biden wants to ensure the existing authorizations for the use of military force “are replaced with a narrow and specific framework that will ensure we can protect Americans from terrorist threats while ending the forever wars.”
The NSC is “committed to working with Congress as they move this legislation forward,” he added.
2. Opinion | Don’t cede the Asia-Pacific to China. The U.S. must learn from its TPP mistake.
The Washington Post · by Tom Carper and John Cornyn · June 13, 2021
Pulling out of TPP was arguably one of the biggest strategic mistakes of the previous administration. Think of where we could potentially in terms of the economic strength of the TPP versus malign economic behavior of authoritarian regimes.
3. Rare earth metals at the heart of China’s rivalry with US, Europe
RFI · June 13, 2021
Excerpts: “China is expected to remain dominant for some time to come, but Schafer said that if recycling is scaled up, “20 to 30 percent of Europe’s rare earth magnet needs by 2030 could be sourced domestically in the EU from literally zero today.”
The desire to accelerate rare earth production comes amid a shortage of semiconductors, which are essential for the computing and automotive industries and mostly manufactured in Asia.
The scarcity “has caused global manufacturers to think about their supply chain in a new way, and think about vulnerabilities,” a spokesman for MP Materials said, adding that several European automotive and wind power firms are already in contact with the company.
4.G7 set to agree ‘green belt and road’ plan to tackle China’s influence
Financial Times · by Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe · June 12, 2021
Excerpts: “Johnson wants to focus on supporting green initiatives and has been wary of presenting the initiative as an “anti-China” move. British officials say they want the G7 to “show what we are for, not who we are against”.
But the White House favours a wider package of infrastructure support and is explicit about wanting to provide a new counterweight to China’s influence.
“We have a slightly narrower focus,” said one British official.
On Saturday G7 leaders held talks to co-ordinate China strategy. “There was broad agreement that we should co-operate with Beijing on things like fighting climate change, compete in areas like global supply chains and contest on issues like human rights,” said one official briefed on the talks.
5. U.S. contractor to pay $5.28 million to Abu Ghraib prisoners
CBS News · June 12, 2021
Excerpts: “In the case against CACI, four Iraqis who say they were tortured are seeking compensation from the company, which provided interrogators to the U.S. military during the war. CACI has chosen to continue its fight against the lawsuit. Azmy said a trial is expected this summer.
In its defense four years ago against the lawsuit, L-3 said the fact that the claims in the case “cannot be brought against the government means that they also cannot be brought against L-3.”
“No court in the United States has allowed aliens — detained on the battlefield or in the course of postwar occupation and military operations by the U.S. military — to seek damages for their detention,” the company told the federal court four years ago. “Yet these plaintiffs bring claims seeking money damages for their detention and treatment while in the custody of the U.S. military in the midst of a belligerent occupation in Iraq.”
Allowing the case to proceed “would require a wholly unprecedented injection of the judiciary into wartime military operations and occupation conduct against the local population, in particular the conditions of confinement and interrogation for intelligence gathering,” L-3 added.
6. ‘Be ready’: Australia warned about China’s ‘grey zone’ war
A very strong statement from Foriegn Minister Yu: “Dr Joseph Wu spoke to The Weekend Australian and said China was preparing for war and “we all need to be ready for that”.
“The new phenomenon we are seeing is part of what I would describe as China’s ‘grey zone’ operations, where it sends in its maritime militia – large fishing boats armed, operated and following the orders of China’s navy – to harass and intimidate their perceived enemies,” he said.
“This is something Australia hasn’t experienced yet – but it is coming.”
7. FACT SHEET: President Biden and G7 Leaders Launch Build Back Better World (B3W) Partnership
President Biden used B3W (said we are calling it B3W) in his remarks at his press conference today from the UK. As I asked in another message, have we developed the information and influence campaign to dominate the narrative? And will our G7 and D10 partners embrace this and begin to support the narrative? We will have to goggle B3W every day to see how effective the new plan and the names are growing in usage. Is the GEC at State taking the lead?
8. ‘Build Back Better World’: G7 leaders back developing world spending plan to rival China
The media is beginning to describe the B3W plan (and this is from yesterday). Perhaps after POTUS’ press conference today and his use of the term it will begin to grow legs.
9. UN rights commissioner warns of escalating violence in Myanmar
This is one of those predictions that unfortunately is likely to come true.
10. FBI Using NSA to Conduct Unconstitutional ‘Warrantless’ Searches for ‘Extremists’
americandefensenews.com · by Paul Crespo
Excerpts: “In the newly released FISA report, a judge said the FBI’s Fourth Amendment violations were still “apparently widespread.”
The Daily Mail also noted that it is unclear from the FISA report whether the FBI uncovered any criminal ‘extremist’ behavior or made any arrests resulting from the searches. Also unknown is what the Bureau did with seized data that was harmless or irrelevant to its search.
What is also unclear is just how many law abiding Americans had their personal data viewed by the FBI in its search for “racially motivated” extremists.
A senior FBI official told the Daily Mail that the FBI had taken ‘numerous steps’ to comply with the FISA court guidance over the past 18 months.
11. China cautions G7: ‘small’ groups don’t rule the world
Is China feeling pressure?
12. 2021 G7 Leaders’ communiqué: Our shared agenda for global action to build back better
Consilum · June 13, 2021
The 25 page communique is at this link.
Per my previous comments about the information and influence campaign and the narrative: “Build back Better” is in the very title of the communique. It looks like some good work has been done by the diplomats and actions officers working on this.
The question is can B3W take on a major role in the narrative. B3W versus BRI?
13. ‘Xi Jinping is my spiritual leader’: China’s education drive in Tibet
Reuters · by Martin Pollard
Incredible indoctrination attempts.
Excerpts: “Civilians and religious figures who the government arranged to be interviewed on the five-day trip pledged loyalty to the Communist Party and Xi.
Asked who his spiritual leader was, a monk at Lhasa’s historic Jokhang temple named Xi.
“I’m not drunk … I speak freely to you,” said the monk named Lhakpa, speaking from a courtyard overlooked by security cameras and government observers.
The portraits of Xi were visible at almost all sites visited by Reuters during the trip to Tibet, where journalists are banned from entering outside of such tours. It was not clear when the posters and flags were put up.
“The posters coincide with a massive political education programme which is called ‘feeling gratitude to the party’ education,” said Robert Barnett, a Tibetan studies veteran scholar at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.
14. The US military is tearing itself apart over ‘wokeness’ and it’s only helping America’s enemies
taskandpurpose.com · by Jeff Schogol · June 12, 2021
15. Biden’s Blue Dot seeks to derail China’s Belt and Road
asiatimes.com · by Richard Javad Heydarian · June 9, 2021
B3W appears to be derived from BDN (Blue Dot Network). Can we keep track of the acronyms (and we thought the. US military overused acronyms)
16. My Mother Eleni: The Search for her Executioners (published in 1983 about the Greek Civil War)
The New York Times · by Nicholas Gage · April 3, 1983
One of the great things about social media for me is when friends post interesting information and articles that I have missed or not come across. And we should be grateful to the NY Times archives. A friend posted this on Facebook and I think this is an interesting Sunday read about the tragedy of revolutions and resistance (in this case the Greek Civil War following WWII). This is the human domain of war and its long-term effects.
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“It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.”
– Eric Hoffer
“Second we find in our prerevolutionary society definite and indeed very bitter class antagonisms, though these antagonisms seem rather more complicated than the cruder Marxists will allow.”
– Crane Brinton
“First, I continue to think that people, with all their diverse identities, desires, and beliefs, should be central to our analyses of conflict. This means that individuals should be the prism through which to examine the effects of social structures, beliefs, and the possibilities for mobilization and political action. Is “relative deprivation” the best concept for doing so? In my own later writings I have used the words grievances and sense of injustice to capture the essence of the state of mind that motivates people to political action. Whichever phrase is used, the essential first step in any analysis is to understand what people’s grievances are and where they come from.”
-Ted Gurr
